NEW DELHI: Safety, innovation,comfort and rideability products reigned the third edition of the ACMAAutomechanika, the country’s largest automotive aftermarket exhibition that is being held between 21-24 March at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. With 550 exhibitors up from 280 in the first edition, it has drawn 287 Indian companies and 252 foreign participants across 17 countries.

On a walk around the trade fair, ET Auto spoke to several manufacturers across diverse segments to gauge their general mood and what was clicking at the exhibition.

Most of the component manufacturers were focusing on getting on board new distribution houses to market their products, establish collaborations for growing their business or export their products as well as acquire new customers, be it an OEM, workshop or garage owners Interestingly, many of them were also exhibiting products to cater to the electric vehicle segment that is pitted to grow to over 5 million by 2020.

The US-based Delphi had on display their entire product range spawning 11 product lines across 4 different categories. These included their steering, suspension and brake parts that form critical safety components in a vehicle.

Faisal Martin country director-India and sub- continent, Delphi Product and Service Solutions, India said the company’s focus was to enhance its brakes portfolio encompassing brake pads, brake fluids and disc brakes in the aftermarket especially in the light of tightening safety regulations in the country.

With changing times, the anti-lock braking system that is set to become mandatory in the country across vehicle segments in phases, would form part of the company’s future strategy as well. The company is also investing in suspension and steering parts that go towards improving the drive quality.

Last year it launched about 250 such parts with more to follow this year. Globally Delphi is strong in steering and brake parts and now it plans to offer the entire gamut of product offerings in these categories to Indian consumers that would cover almost 85 percent of the passenger car parc going forward.

Globally, Delphi is also undertaking a lot of work in digitization and digitalization and Martin says even trade is aligning with this upcoming trend in India both in terms of transactions as well as connected technologies.

The company was happy with the response that they had received at the event in terms of business enquiries over the last 2 days.

Oerlikon that makes drive systems had on display transmissions, synchronisers for gear boxes, as well as gear boxes for electric cars and differential assemblies that also form part of the gear box that boosts torque to the wheel.

These form functional parts in a vehicle and help reduce noise, and increase the comfort and driveability. The company has set up a separate group company for driving servicing and tapping the aftermarket globally and in India.

Sandeep Khullar director, head of sales and marketing India of Graziano Transmissioni India says that the company is developing India as a hub for reverse engineering and a production base for its global requirements for both the service and aftermarket.

Hence, the significance of participating in the ACMA Automechanika to woo customers and distributors. Khullar maintains that globally a recent trend has seen cars moving towards electrification due to more stringent emission norms as well as the need to reduce noise and improve comfort.

“A paradigm shift is happening in the product profile and amongst players in the electric space. More conventional car makers are entering the electric segment globally.” This necessitates tweaks in components to meet electric vehicle requirements. But he admits there is a time lag of 10 years for this trend to reach India.

ZF that is a leader in driveline components, chassis parts across different brands is focusing on safety, quality and longevity of products at the exhibition and has received a positive response at the ACMA Automechanika which officials feel has become more professional and sophisticated in its third edition.

Andre Scholle, head of independent aftermarket, Asia Pacific. pointed out that the latest trend in India was that the car owner was focusing more on maintenance than simply breakdown maintenance as part of upping the safety quotient in the car. This necessitated preventive servicing and the new crop of car models were becoming more advanced. Hence their longevity was increasing and therefore repair in a vehicle was also moving toward a better maintenance.

The company plans to now focus on chassis parts, brake parts and steering parts in India in line with the changing mindset and behavior of repairs required. The car range would also widen calling for a greater variety of replacement components.

In addition Scholle says a new trend is emerging that would see more electric cars. This would drive a shift in the aftermarket towards new technology products like artificial intelligence and autonomous driving as well as more emphasis on safety.

Oerlikon that makes drive systems had on display transmissions, synchronisers for gear boxes, as well as gear boxes for electric cars and differential assemblies that also form part of the gear box that boosts torque to the wheel.

Jamna Auto Industries that makes suspension parts like leaf and parabolic springs as well as axles for the commercial vehicle segment that form both a comfort and safety critical part was scouting for distributors for both India and for the global markets at the fair. Pankaj Gupta CFO of the company remarked that there was a big aftermarket in both India and overseas and Jamna Auto was looking to grow its presence in it. The aftermarket constitutes about 15-18 percent of its business currently.

The company is looking to expand its export base to CIS countries, Middle East and the Americas and has received a lot of enquiries at its stall.

Gupta says that the trend is now moving towards advanced parabolic spring technology internationally that provides a better drive and increases the life of the vehicle. In India Jamna is one of the largest providers of suspension parts for CVs with parabolics constituting 16 percent of its product line. Going forward it plans to focus on this technology that is also set to gather steam in India.

Also on display were its lift axles for specialty vehicles to reduce the wear and tear of the CVs.

Even lights are now constituting a safety product and Ramashankar Pandey managing director of Hella India Lighting remarked that the company had ventured into safety lighting since 2012. Hella had on display safety lighting products for trucks like LED taillights that ensure adequate braking time in case of a collision.

Among other safety lights on display were signaling single LED lights and lights to prevent glare. These have narrow, low and far beams that provide bright lights without blinding the oncoming vehicle.

The driver of this edition of ACMA Automechanika were predominantly parts and components, repair and maintenance as well as electronics that are pitted to see a huge growth potential in India going forward with vehicles becoming more tech savvy.

Among the other spotlights at the show were accessories and customizing, management and digital solutions as well as car wash, care and reconditioning, a new product zone displaying the latest specialty products, auto components and innovative aftermarket accessories from the shop floor.

Many product launches will be witnessed over the 4 days by various companies across product lines.

Clearly the focus is on new generation and high technology products as well as vehicle maintenance to keep pace with the evolving technologies in the vehicle segment. Taking a cue from the Governments focus on digital India, the exhibition found resonation in stakeholders who are slowly moving towards digital transactions in the aftermarket after demonetisation.

“As the average age of a car grows, the business in the aftermarket will also grow attracting more companies including international ones to India,” says Raj Manek, executive director and Board member of Messe Frankfurt Asia.

Today among the BRIC countries while Brazil and Africa are facing a decline in their automotive industry due to volatilities in their economies, China is in the midst of changing its manufacturing base from outputting large volumes to quality that has slowed down its auto industry growth. In this scenario India offers a large opportunity in the automotive aftermarket that is pegged to grow to $13 billion by 2020 from the current $8 billion.

“ACMA Automechanika New Delhi features today what the industry will need tomorrow in terms of competitive aftermarket products and technical expertise which we are sure will drive up the exhibitor and visitor quality from its previous editions,” adds Manek.

Interestingly, officials maintain that in the fourth edition of the exhibition they would be keen to add batteries and the tyre segment which has till now been present in a very small scale due to lack of space and the high demand from the existing exhibits.

At the inauguration, Rattan Kapur president of ACMA had remarked that the industry body was for the first time launching the ‘ÁCMA Safer Drives’ pavilion for sensitizing the public towards safety rules and usage of genuine parts underlying the importance the exhibition was giving to safety and subsequent campaigns to reduce sub- standard parts.

While counterfeits have now reduced from over 32 percent of the aftermarket to almost 5 percent, according to a recent study by ACMA a new challenge has cropped up in the form of the unorganized sector that is threatening to take its place.

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In order to exhibit the model stretches of national highways as per norms, NHAI plans to develop 57 stretches of NH (1,735 kms) across the length and breadth of the country near each state capital, the NHAI official said. These model stretches will serve as a platform to instruct the highway engineers.